Investment in Venezuela’s telecommunications industry increased 21.7% in the third quarter compared with the same period last year, reaching U.S. $220 million, said Conatel, the country’s telecom agency. However, the number of mobile subscribers dropped 3.2% from a year ago.
Venezuela had nearly 27 million subscribers at the end of the third quarter, a ratio of 93 mobile phone lines in use per 100 inhabitants. Prepaid service is dominant, with 93.5% of subscribers. About 61% of the lines use GSM technology while 39% use CDMA. Of the total, 2.77 million lines are associated with plans for BlackBerry devices.
Internet service saw an increase of 20.3% in subscribers, to nearly 3 million customers. Current, it is estimated that Venezuela has 10.8 million Internet end users nationwide, which is 37 service users per 100 inhabitants.
Internet broadband grew by 20.6% over the same period, influenced by the growth of mobile broadband, which represents 36.5% of customers in the category. Dial-up had about 271,000 subscribers, an increase of 17.5%.
Additionally, 91.7% of Internet customers were residential, compared with 8.3% nonresidential.
During the past year, more than 231,000 new subscribers were added to local fixed telephone services. Venezuela now counts a total of 7.3 million subscribers, reflecting an increase of 3.3%, mainly driven by wireless technology. Conatel estimates that there are 25 local fixed telephone subscribers per 100 inhabitants. Residential subscribers accounted for 86.3% of the total, with household penetration estimated at 89.2%.
In the third quarter, 52,450 subscribers joined the subscription broadcasting service, and customers reached 2.6 million. About 37 of every 100 households subscribe to a formal service.
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